Quantum computers are ever closer to becoming a reality, and when
they arrive they will revolutionise computing powerThe reality of
the universe in which we live is an outrage to common sense. Over
the past 100 years, scientists have been forced to abandon a theory
in which the stuff of the universe constitutes a single, concrete
reality in exchange for one in which a single particle can be in
two (or more) places at the same time. This is the universe as
revealed by the laws of quantum physics and it is a model we are
forced to accept – we have been battered into it by the weight of
the scientific evidence. Without it, we would not have discovered
and exploited the tiny switches present in their billions on every
microchip, in every mobile phone and computer around the world. The
modern world is built using quantum physics: through...